COMPANION: ELDER WELSH
ASSISTANTS
You know, I heard once that there is no wrong way to do missionary work. There is only doing it, and not doing it, there's no doing it wrong. Because it is the Lord's work, and He is perfect, there are no imperfections or mistakes. It is all simply a matter of His purposes, His will, and His timing. I sure hope all of that is true, because if there is a wrong way to do missionary work, it's probably the way I do it!
I don't even know! I don't know how to describe what is going on over here! It'll help you to know that Elder Welsh was gone the entire week and I stayed here with four different companions before I finally got him back Saturday afternoonish. So that was a little wild. And I just ran around. Knock a few doors, talk to some people, realize they all only speak spanish, sprint across the road to a house, find a whole family willing to receive and listen and read the Book of Mormon. A few doors down a 90 year old lady comes to the door all sweet and lovely, opens the door to talk with us, then panics when she sees our nametags and scurries away, without a comment or even closing the door. She just shuffles down the hall and doesnt come back! HAH! The next door there's a russian man in his twenties who is atheist, but believes in Jesus. And he believes science has proven that africans are the only real humans, all other humans are just forms of monkeys. His name is Gleb. Great name.
What else? I used to call this investigator family a few times a week. They never met with us and the dad would usually swear a lot on the phone. After months of this (they came to church i think once in 6 months) I was gone for a week and didnt make any calls with my phone. Well I get back into town, and show up to the church for our scripture class on wednesday and there they are! The whole family sits down, soaks up the book of mormon, sets up a time to meet more with the ward mission leader, and ask the bishop if their son can join the scout troop. Then he takes me outside and yells at me for half an hour because I stopped calling and he doesn't feel loved!!!!
You just never know how tender people are. Goodness I love people. They sure yell a lot! I had never thought of myself as quiet, but everyone is so loud! Is it a southern thing? We're sitting on this couch in an investigator's home (They are hindu. Born and raised in India. They are husband and wife named Ragoo and Rini) and they are both shouting at the tops of their voices about who knows what telling us how not interested they are (my thought was, well then why on earth do you keep letting us in and feeding us all this curry?!?!?!?!?)! He's shouting about how all medical maladies can be cured by homeopathy and yoga (thought of you mom) and so only the unreligious would ever get sick, and she's yelling about how all the good in the world should be respected and valued equally and no one should fight about things. And of course I just can't keep it together and start laughing uncontrollably which doesn't phase them at all. Finally we all calm down a little bit, and Elder Welsh (who has been sitting quietly on the couch looking a little bit like a bomb just went off in front of him) pulls out his ipad and, without making a single comment on anything either of them said or the fact that I just about fell off the couch laughing at it all, shows the Because He Lives easter video that the church has put out and invites them to Church and they say yes and come! Well, they get lost and don't actually get to the building, but they sure tried!
There were some less hilarious moments too. I learned this week why we are so gentle and patient and kind instead of getting mega phones and book-of-mormon-air-cannons. It is because that is what the Lord wants. And when the Lord wants something else, He will have it. When the Lord needs not a servant publishing glad tidings, but a watchman on the tower warning of the dire consequences of a course of action, He will have it. And no black spirit will abide the terrible word of God in that day when He speaks in absolute glory. I have a powerful hope in the might of the goodness and love and long-suffering of the Lord, for I have seen hate debased and darkness shackled and grown men cower in the corners of their own home unable to look into the eyes of a servant of the Lord and face what is to them the unbearable light of love. One word of warning by the Spirit was enough to humble all the fury any pit could unleash. It was terrifying and electrifying and wonderful and depressing to witness. To witness the fearlessness of truth subdue so absolutely the wretched cravings of him who was a liar from the beginning. To watch those who subscribe to his lies literally, physically, visibly break down before the testimony of Jesus. To sink into their chairs and rest their faces in their hands and put their heads on the table and uncontrollably weep and shake. Unwilling to change, but unable to deny. I have seen it before, but never like that. I will not soon forget the power of God to protect, to subdue, and to testify.
It is a happy thing, to be a missionary. I got to help a father give his very first priesthood blessing to his youngest daughter after receiving the melchezidek priesthood a week or so ago. He was so sweet. I trained him, walked him through it, and watched this little girl LIGHT. UP. Oh it was marvelous. He had no idea there was a second part after putting the drop of oil on someone's head. So I finished the anointing and he just walked away! I still had my eyes closed and didnt realize he was gone until he was in the parking lot! Had to go and fetch him back and walk him through. It was perfect. Just perfect. Two recent converts got endowed last weekend. And oh, the fireside.
Vicki & Me
THE FIRESIDE!!!!!
The three stakes in Jacksonville had a fireside for recent converts, member,s missionaries, and investigators. The first speaker was Vicki, who Elder Bore and I found, taught, and baptized last august. She stood up and bore an earth-shaking testimony of the wonderous work the gospel has done in her life in the last 7 months. She spoke of the dark thoughts of abandoning life at the beginning, of the light and challenge of the gospel, of the new family and strength and work and purpose and vitalization of life that has come. Sobbing, she praised the name of God and His willing servants. Our misison president had her stand up at the end and asked for the names of those who participated in her conversion. She didn't know I was there, but she said my name, and I went running up the aisle like in some crazy dr. phil episode and grabbed her by the hand and we just stood there beaming and weeping together in front of everyone. And then she listed all the others. The dozens and dozens of others who welcomed her in. The other missionaries who have worked with her since then, the ward members and visiting teaching families and companions and bishop and home teachers and we all stood up there together and GLORIED. Gloried in the unspeakable joy the gospel has brought and wrought.
When it says "how great shall be your joy if you shall bring but one soul", I think it means your joy will literally be full. You cannot be happier than that. You cannot be happier than when you bring another. Whether your bring them into this world through parenthood, into the gospel through missionary work, into the fold through fellowship and love, I cannot imagine a greater joy. One, two, or a million and three, the joy bucket is full. I feel what alma called "swelling motions". Oh alma. Lawyer scientist alma. You always get me. I feel like I could explode. I feel like my soul is going to tear wide open and the joy will cascade out and DROWN the entire habitation of this world because there is not room enough in creation for the fullness of my joy. Oh I am so full. I will send along a picture of me and Vicki. I love the gospel so desperately and dearly. It is not something I have chosen to do for two years. It is not an extended internship. I have been asked for more than that. It is something we are. It takes more than two years of behaviors. It takes an eternity of identity. Thought, feeling, will, personality, hope... All are expected on the altar of sacrifice, all are demanded by the Creator of All not just now but for forever. And He can have mine, and He can have whatever else He wants. He has given my joy. I stand all amazed, and it is wonderful to me.
I hope that captures a bit of the week. I hope you feel close. I hope you understand what I mean when I say that I love being a missionary. I love it.
~Elder Jorgensen
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